The Clusion Wars: The Apocalyptic Clash Between Liberal Inclusion and Conservative Exclusion

By Luke Matthews

Who is America’s most important president? Unsurprisingly, the liberal media ranked Donald Trump close to the bottom. In fact, Trump arguably competes for the top slot. The reason for this is that his presidency was foundationally concerned with the nature of America itself, and what the America of the future will be like. Will America continue to be America, or will it morph into something very different, into a liberal coalition of weird minority groups that have no love of American history and the conventional idea of what it is to be an American, and no physical resemblance to the Americans of old.

Trump brought to light the decisive issue of our times – how to define America. Should a nation be defined by inclusion, as liberals want, or by exclusion, as conservatives desire.

When you strip back all of the squabbles between the Democrats and the Republicans, the liberals and the conservatives, you arrive at one theme, endlessly repeated: should the “Other” be regarded as a friend we haven’t met yet, as someone we need to embrace as rapidly, warmly and fully as possible (as the liberals would have it), or as an enemy we have luckily avoided thus far, as someone we actively need to shut out, as rapidly, coldly and comprehensively as possible (as the conservatives would have it). Is the Other to be included or excluded? It’s that simple. Or that complex. People who think this question has an easy answer are deluded.

To welcome or not to welcome the Other comes down to where a person stands on the subject of sameness versus difference. Is difference always an enemy, a threat, and sameness always non-threatening, a friend? Or is difference the means by which we make progress and sameness something regressive?

So, here we all here. Whither America? Will America look anything like itself a hundred years from now? Or will it seem like a different country, a country unrecognizable to conservatives? It’s all to play for. Who will win the Clusion Wars? To include or to exclude, that is the definitive question of our times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781447833642

Luke Matthews

Luke Matthews researches religion and society.

Book preview

The Clusion Wars

The Apocalyptic Clash Between Liberal Inclusion and Conservative Exclusion

Luke Matthews

Copyright © Luke Matthews 2023

All rights reserved.

978-1-4478-3364-2

Imprint: Lulu.com

Table of Contents

The Clusion Wars

To Include or Exclude?

To Include or Exclude?

Who is America’s most important president? Unsurprisingly, the liberal media ranked Donald Trump close to the bottom. In fact, Trump arguably competes for the top slot. The reason for this is that his presidency was foundationally concerned with the nature of America itself, and what the America of the future will be like. Will America continue to be America, or will it morph into something very different, into a liberal coalition of weird minority groups that have no love of American history and the conventional idea of what it is to be an American, and no physical resemblance to the Americans of old.

Trump brought to light the decisive issue of our times – how to define America. Should a nation be defined by inclusion, as liberals want, or by exclusion, as conservatives desire.

When you strip back all of the squabbles between the Democrats and the Republicans, the liberals and the conservatives, you arrive at one theme, endlessly repeated: should the Other be regarded as a friend we haven’t met yet, as someone we need to embrace as rapidly, warmly and fully as possible (as the liberals would have it), or as an enemy we have luckily avoided thus far, as someone we actively need to shut out, as rapidly, coldly and comprehensively as possible (as the conservatives would have it). Is the Other to be included or excluded? It’s that simple. Or that complex. People who think this question has an easy answer are deluded.

To welcome or not to welcome the Other comes down to where a person stands on the subject of sameness versus difference. Is difference always an enemy, a threat, and sameness always non-threatening, a friend? Or is difference the means by which we make progress and sameness something regressive?

You can’t get any more basic than your core attitude towards sameness versus difference. When a stranger walks slowly towards you, isn’t assessing whether or not he is a threat the first thing you do? How do you decide whether he poses a danger? For many people, the more unlike you a person is – the more different they are – the more likely you are to judge them unwelcome and hostile. If you are uneasy when a stranger heads your way, you are likely in general life to find yourself adopting a range of conservative stances. Liberals have the opposite worldview. They are attracted to difference, variety, diversity. They see it as an opportunity instead of a threat. They love difference and get bored by sameness.

Politics is downstream of your biological, instinctive response to difference. Some people love difference, others hate it. The haters love sameness. They want to be amongst their own kind and they dislike any other kind. They feel safe with their own, and under threat with the Other.

Is the same or the different more likely to be a threat? The risk-averse will stick to the same, what they know, the safe option. Risk seekers, the gamblers, the experimenters, want the different. Instead of threat, they focus on opportunity. A changing environment, an environment producing difference, satisfies their taste for risk. Risk seekers are much more likely to run into trouble than the risk averse. They are also much more likely to encounter new opportunities and experiences.

So, there are two basic strategies available to everyone: pursue risk, hence be positive towards difference and change, or be averse to risk, hence be positive to sameness and the unchanging. The latter gives rise to conservatism (keep things the same), and the former to liberalism (keep embracing difference). With religions, spiritual systems, political systems, economic systems, philosophies, sciences – you name it – you will discover that when you drill down far enough into any of these, you will encounter a basic attitude towards risk.

Vicious conflicts break out amongst people which, in truth, are simply about whether these people like or oppose risk, whether they like or oppose difference, whether they like or oppose change, whether they like or oppose inclusion.

In the past, conservatives were largely in charge of American culture and many groups were excluded from the halls of power and influence. Liberals formed the counterculture. Now, liberals provide the primary culture, one based on maximum inclusion – including, especially, all the groups particularly marginalized and excluded by conservatism and its Christian worldview. Conservatives now provide the counterculture, and the most spectacular and effective leader of this counterrevolution proved to be Donald Trump. His signature slogan – Make America Great Again – was all about restoring America to its conservative foundations, and ridding America of liberalism, perceived as an insane embrace of moral degeneration through the unquestioning acceptance of every weirdo and